I wanted to make the case for the missing gem of motorsport, the 1980 Rover SD1. This car was designed by David Bache, designer of the Ferrari Daytona and the link between designs is obvious. Especially in the front end. Famous driver and team manager Raymond Mays described it as the “best car he ever had.” It makes an astounding 148hp from its aluminium Buick V8. Its racing history traces back to such luminaries as Tom Walkinshaw and Tony Pond.
My brother-in-law and I race one (with the original aluminium V8 engine) in the 24 Hours of Lemons Series, and this thing would absolutely DOMINATE in C class in Forza. Great acceleration, surprisingly planted handling. A beautiful patina of rust and fading paint and some electrical tape numbers make for the best livery in all of racing. This car won the I.O.E. award at the 2022 Lemons race at the National Corvette Museum, was running 3rd in class C at Barber Motorsports Park this past February until a monsoon arrived, and then took victory in class C at Gingerman Raceway this past May, with an absurd 8th place overall for a 44-year-old British car. I can arrange a scan of the vehicle if Turn10 so desire. See it in action at Road America in 2023 here: https://youtu.be/8-IXKnQTMkY?si=W_G7vk7OdwrBwqrb Nothing can stop this car, Turn10 just doesn’t want everyone to use it online to keep it from overwhelming every lobby in which it’s available. But all racers need to experience the glory of this thoroughbred of racing. Thank for attending my TED talk.
They do have a Rover SD1 scanned and added to Forza Horizon 4, but alas it remains the only Forza it’s been in. I would love to have it in FM23, but I doubt it will be added any time soon due to the pace of adding cars as well as the trend towards adding only (already built) racing cars… I’ll give the thread a vote though
David Bache designed the Rover P5 (Three Litre), the P6 (2000) and the SD1 (3500). His other Rover designs were not produced due to the BMC/Leyland merger - Bill Lyons of Jaguar vetoed any internal competition.
Bache also tidied up other peoples’ designs, notably the Land Rover Series 2, original Range Rover and Austin Mini Metro.
The P6 and SD1 both won European Car of the Year awards.
The ultimate road SD1 variant, the Vitesse, was in Horizon 4. It produced 190 bhp, with a further 250 cars having up to 220 bhp for homologation in Group A Racing, where 340 bhp was claimed.
The Ferrari Daytona (365 GTB/4) was one of the inspirations for the SD1, the other being the BMC 1800 concept by Pininfarina. Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina designed the Daytona.
Just a brief reminder that the Rover SD1 voting topic has been split into three versions for both games, if you like to see those variants in the games, individual votes for those would be welcome
Twas the first car I got into as a kid that had electric windows and that’s all that mattered back then, but sure why not add some interesting vehicles to the game.
